I 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
" Sver'tbing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 


1 


THE  GREATEST 
PUBLISHING  HOUSE 
IN  THE  WORLD 


THE  GREATEST 
PUBLISHING  HOUSE 
IN    THE  WORLD 


FIFTY  years  ago,  the  firm  of  Street 
&  Smith  occupied  a  small  building 
on  Frankfort  Street  and  issued  one  pub- 
lication— the  New  York  Weekly. 
Today,  besides  this  publication,  the  firm 
publishes  three  magazines  with  a  com- 
bined circulation  of  700,000  copies 
monthly.  A  growth  of  this  kind  fur- 
nishes the  be£t  proof  as  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  policy  pursued  by  the  firm. 

Ainslee's  Magazine,  the  Popular 
Magazine,  and  Smith's  Magazine  each 
occupy  their  individual  spheres,  and  are 
far  in  the  lead  of  any  other  magazine 
of  similar  purport. 


To  the  advertiser  who  invents  his 
money  in  these  magazines,  the  solidity 
and  strength  of  the  house  backing  them 
is  of  tremendous  importance.  It  is  a 
guarantee  that  the  policy  of  the  pub- 
lication, which  induced  him  to  invent 
his  money  in  advertising  space,  will  be 
carried  out,  and  that  the  cumulative 
value  of  his  advertising  will  be  assured. 

Amslee's, 11  the  magazine  that  enter- 
tains," with  its  circulation  of  250,000 
copies  at  fifteen  cents  a  copy,  makes  its 
appeal  to  the  man  or  woman  who  is 
carefully  discriminating  in  taste.  It  con- 
tains nothing  but  fiction,  and  represents 
the  very  best  of  contemporary  literature. 
Mrs.  Edith  Wharton,  Lloyd  Osborne, 
O.  Henry,  Edgar  Saltus,  and  many  other 
writers,  equally  prominent,  have  pre- 
sented the  best  of  their  recent  work  to 
the  American  public  through  the  medium 


of  Ainslee's.  Ainslee's  is  a  magazine 
that  appeals  to  the  critical  and  it  has 
won  their  unqualified  approval. 

The  Popular,  another  unillustrated 
fiction  magazine,  offers  each  month  the 
biggest  collection  of  adventure  fiction 
possible  to  secure  at  that  price.  Rider 
Haggard,  Cutcliffe  Hyne,  T.  Jenkins 
Hains,  Louis  Tracy, — all  the  writers  of 
adventure  fiction  who  have  won  the  at- 
tention of  the  English-speaking  public 
are  regular  contributors.  It  contains  1  94 
pages  of  short  stories,  novelettes,  and 
serials.  Its  circulation  of  over  three  hun- 
dred thousand  is  composed  of  people 
who  want  The  Popular  as  regularly  as 
they  want  their  meals. 

"Smith's,"  the  youngest  of  the  three 
magazines,  is  probably  broader  and  more 
catholic  in  its  appeal  than  any  magazine 
ever  issued.    It  is  a  ten  cent  magazine, 


Editorial  Offices 


and  yet  it  is  the  biggest  illustrated  maga- 
zine in  the  market  today.  It  is  the  only 
illustrated  magazine  issued  by  the  firm, 
and  the  extraordinary  mechanical  re- 
sources at  the  command  of  the  publishers 
enable  them  to  make  it  stronger  pictori- 
ally  than  any  other  mon  thly.  It  carries 
each  month  a  series  of  half-tone  art 
studies  impossible  to  duplicate  elsewhere. 
Smith's  makes  an  especial  appeal  to  the 
feminine.  During  the  past  year  it  has 
been  building  up  a  fashion  department 
of  actual  practical  value,  and  in  each 
number  there  are  special  articles  on  sub- 
jects interesting  to  women.  The  articles 
on  public  questions  contributed  by  such 
men  as  Governor  Folk,  Governor  Hoch, 
of  Kansas,  and  Tom  Johnson ;  the  serials, 
by  writers  like  Charles  Garvice  and  Mrs. 
Georgie  Sheldon;  the  short  stories,  by 
Edwin  L.  Sabin,  Holman  F.  Day,  and 


authors  of  that  class — all  combine  to 
make  Smith's  a  magazine  of  a  size  and 
breadth  never  before  attempted.  Smith's 
is  a  magazine  that  will  go  from  hand  to 
hand  through  a  whole  family,  every 
member  finding  in  it  something  of  per- 
sonal interest.  Its  present  circulation  of 
1  50,000  is  only  a  small  percentage  of 
the  army  of  readers  it  will  attain  within 
the  next  year  or  so. 

The  new  Street  &  Smith  building, 
the  most  complete  plant  of  its  kind  in 
the  world,  is  solid  and  substantial  and 
typical  of  the  firm  itself.  In  outward 
appearance  it  is  simple  in  architectural 
treatment,  yet  showing  how  cleverly  plain 
bricks  can  be  put  together  to  form  an 
imposing  structure. 

To  produce  the  vast  quantity  of  read- 
ing matter  represented  by  the  Street  & 
Smith  publications,  and  at  popular  prices, 


Advertising  Department  and  Art  Department 


requires  mechanical  facilities  of  an  ex- 
ceptional order.  To  utilize  them  to  the 
best  advantage  necessitated  housing  them 
in  the  most  adequate  manner.  Hence 
the  architects  were  told  not  to  spare  ex- 
pense if  utility  could  be  secured. 

How  well  these  instructions  were 
carried  out  may  be  gained  from  the  fact 
that  the  total  cost  of  the  building  could 
have  been  lessened  by  $  1  00,000  with- 
out appreciably  diminishing  its  useful- 
ness. That,  however,  was  not  according 
to  the  Street  &  Smith  standard.  From 
the  top  to  the  bottom  of  this  great  build- 
ing, as  in  every  department  of  the  concern 
itself,  thoroughness  must  prevail. 

Those  who  observe  the  steel  frame- 
work as  it  was  being  erected  marvelled 
at  the  massiveness  of  the  beams  and 
girders,  and  marvelled  still  more  at  the 
bracings  and  cross-bracings;  and  yet  their 


Treasurer's  Office — Office  for  our  Out  of  Town  Friends 


A  Corner  in  the  Linotype  Room 


wonder  increases  when,  on  a  tour  through 
the  completed  building,  they  are  informed 
that  great  rotary  printing-presses  on  the 
second  floor  are  working  night  and  day, 
that  a  monster  bindery  is  in  operation  on 
the  fourth  floor,  and  that  linotype  ma- 
chines and  a  large  electrotyping  foundry 
are  actively  engaged  on  the  seventh  floor, 
for  never  a  vibration  is  felt,  nor  sound  is 
heard,  except  where  the  work  is  being 
performed. 

A  tour  of  this  remarkable  building 
is  an  education  in  itself.  In  general 
modern  practice  the  strength  of  steel  con- 
struction is  supposed  to  lie  in  the  frame- 
work, while  the  walls  are  merely  erected 
for  the  purpose  of  keeping  out  draughts; 
in  the  Street  &  Smith  building  the  solid 
brick  walls  are  themselves  designed  to 
carry  weight  as  though  the  very  founda- 
tion of  the  building  had  been  built  up 
from  floor  to  floor. 


The  entrance  to  this  model  plant  is 
on  the  Seventh  Avenue  side  of  the  build- 
ing, where,  through  a  portal  of  granite 
columns  supporting  an  entablature  bear- 
ing the  firm's  name  and  striking  in  its 
simplicity,  the  passenger  elevators  and 
the  stairways  are  reached  down  a  wide 
corridor  finished  in  dark  metal  and  white 
tiling. 

The  visitor  is  first  conducted  to  the 
sixth  floor  where,  far  above  the  roar  of 
the  street,  the  general  and  executive  offices 
of  the  establishment  are  maintained. 
Here  one  is  struck  with  another  feature 
of  the  building's  construction,  of  vast  im- 
portance to  those  who  pass  so  many  of 
their  days  within  it,  namely,  the  large 
plate-glass  windows  making  it  possible 
to  secure  the  maximum  of  daylight  and 
fresh  air. 

The  reception  room  is  plainly  but 


comfortably  furnished  in  quartered  oak, 
matching  the  partitions  and  wood-work, 
which  are  of  the  same  material  through- 
out; and  the  doors  with  their  small  dia- 
mond panes  of  bevelled  glass  indicate 
how  artistic  use  can  be  made  of  simple 
materials.  This  room  occupies  the  cen- 
tral portion  of  the  floor  space  and  around 
it  is  a  passage  from  which  open  the  vari- 
ous private  offices  of  the  members  of  the 
firm,  the  executive  officers,  the  editorial 
rooms,  and  the  art  departments,  besides 
the  offices  of  the  accountants  and  other 
clerical  force. 

Naturally  a  tour  of  the  building  be- 
gins at  this  point,  and  properly  enough 
the  seventh  or  top  floor  must  next  be 
visited,  for  here  are  the  composing-rooms 
with  their  long  rows  of  typesetting  ma- 
chines— the  machine  of  all  others  that  is 
"almost  human."     Just  beyond  is  the 


A  Section  of  the  Pressroom — A  Magazine  Press 


electrotyping  foundry,  one  of  the  most 
complete  in  the  city,  where  the  type  is 
cast  into  page  plates,  shaped,  and  made 
ready  for  the  great  cylinder  presses  be- 
low. One  with  the  slightest  love  for 
machinery — and  who  has  not  felt  its  fas- 
cination— would  linger  long  on  this  floor 
among  these  wonder  workers ;  but  there 
is  much  more  to  see  and  the  allotment 
of  time  is  all  too  soon  expended. 

Making  one's  way  down  to  the  fifth 
floor  by  the  iron  stairway  on  the  farther 
side,  a  glimpse  is  caught  of  the  huge 
freight  elevators,  seven  feet  square,  and 
each  capable  of  lifting  a  New  York  Cen- 
tral locomotive. 

Two  interesting  sights  are  to  be  met 
on  the  fifth  floor :  one  is  the  paper  stock, 
roll  upon  roll  and  tier  upon  tier.  There 
are  constantly  stored  here  $70,000 
worth  of  paper — as  much  as  is  carried 


by  the  ordinary  warehouse,  but  which  is 
all  needed  to  feed  the  hungry  presses 
downstairs.  If  all  this  paper  were  piled 
up  on  the  promenade  of  the  Brooklyn 
Bridge  as  it  is  here,  it  would  reach  from 
tower  to  tower.  If  the  rolls  were  un- 
wound and  the  flat  sheets  placed  end 
to  end  it  would  reach  from  New  York 
to  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

The  visitor,  unacquainted  with  such 
things,  wonders  how  these  rolls  of  paper, 
weighing  hundreds  of  pounds  each,  are 
placed  one  atop  of  another  clear  to  the 
ceiling  until,  upon  turning  a  corner  he 
stumbles  across  a  "tiering"  machine  or 
portable  hand  elevator,  by  means  of 
which  one  man  can  lift  a  roll  of  paper 
to  a  height  of  ten  feet. 

The  other  interesting  feature  of  this 
floor  is  the  stack  after  stack  of  back 
numbers  all  in  orderly,  yet  wonderfully 


simple  arrangement ;  none  of  the  Street 
&  Smith  publications  are  ever  out  of 
print,  and  if  one  should  ask,  say,  for  the 
New  York  Weekly  of  Christmas,  1  855, 
it  could  be  furnished  almost  on  the 
instant. 

Descending  to  the  fourth  floor  a 
sight  is  encountered  long  to  be  remem- 
bered— the  bindery — the  immense  plant 
necessary  to  turn  out  the  2,000,000 
books  and  magazines  issued  by  Street  & 
Smith  every  month.  There  are  folding 
machines  that  lift  up  one  sheet  of  paper 
while  holding  down  the  one  underneath, 
and  slipping  it  between  rollers  clap  it 
down  out  of  sight  only  to  have  it  come 
out  in  a  jiffy  as  a  folded  "signature"  of 
thirty-two  pages  at  the  rate  of  1,500 
an  hour. 

The  cover  machines  reveal  the  secret 
of  the  neat  and  substantial  appearance 


of  the  Street  &  Smith  publications — 
work  that  is  ordinarily  done  by  hand  is 
here  performed  much  more  thoroughly 
at  the  rate  of  2,500  an  hour. 

The  third  floor  is  the  great  way- 
station  between  the  presses  below  and 
the  bindery  above.  The  greater  por- 
tion of  it  is  used  for  the  storage  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  printed  sheets 
and  the  remainder  for  the  millions  of 
covers  for  the  magazines.  It  is  a  won- 
derful sight  and  a  silent  testimony  of 
the  tremendous  circulation  of  the  Street 
&  Smith  literature. 

Down  another  flight  of  stairs — and 
here  at  last  is  the  most  thrilling  of  all 
the  sights  in  this  wonderful  building — 
the  press-rooms.  Thirty  presses,  from 
the  small  job  to  the  huge  cylinder 
machines,  of  which  there  are  six,  are 
working  ceaselessly  night  and  day.  The 


big  rotary  book  presses  are  turning  out 
4,500  32  -page  signatures  an  hour, 
printed  both  sides  and  folded ;  the  mag- 
azine presses  5,000  an  hour.  High- 
class  flat-bed  presses  are  printing  covers 
and  advertising  sheets;  a  two-color 
press  is  laying  on  both  colors  at  once ; 
the  little  job  presses  are  making  a  brave 
attempt  to  keep  up  with  their  big  broth- 
ers and  are  succeeding,  too,  in  the  work 
they  are  supposed  to  accomplish.  It  is 
the  most  fascinating  of  all  the  depart- 
ments— the  great,  living  heart  of  the 
establishment  sending  its  life  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 

The  ground  floor  is  full  of  surprises. 
The  tumult  of  the  press-room  directly 
overhead  is  scarcely  perceptible,  so  solid 
is  the  great  building;  this  is  surely  a 
surprise.  But  even  greater  is  the  state- 
ment that  4,000,000  books  are  stored 


on  this  floor.  Was  there  ever  such  a 
library?  And  yet  more  surprises — the 
6,000  titles  forming  this  library,  all  of 
them  always  in  print,  are  so  arranged 
and  classified  that  any  book  can  be  se- 
lected with  as  much  ease  as  if  it  were 
lying  on  a  table  at  the  other  end  of  the 
room,  waiting  to  be  picked  up — cer- 
tainly a  triumph  of  skill  in  classification 
and  arrangement. 

In  the  cellar  are  the  engine-rooms, 
boilers,  dynamos,  and  similar  equipment, 
but  most  interesting  of  all,  the  vaults  for 
the  storage  of  the  plates — the  secret  of 
why  Street  &  Smith  books  are  always  in 
print ;  for  if  an  edition  runs  out  it  is  simply 
a  matter  of  getting  out  the  plates,  putting 
them  on  the  press  and  running  off  a  new 
edition.  There  are  23,000  boxes  of 
these  plates  weighing  in  all  1,725,000 
lbs.  and  representing  a  first  cost  of 

$4,000,000. 


Subscription  Department — Magazine  Backing  Machines 


Composing  Room 


i — Freight  Elevator 


The  magnitude  of  the  stock  contained 
in  this  building  may  be  realized  when  it 
is  stated  that  to  move  it  up  from  the  old 
quarters  on  William  Street  required  nine 
vans  making  three  trips  a  day  for  six 
weeks  to  accomplish  it.  Could  it  have 
been  done  all  at  once,  it  would  have 
taken  a  continuous  procession  of  vans 
reaching  from  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  to  the 
Harlem  River. 

To  protect  this  vast  equipment  from 
fire,  all  possible  precautions  are  taken. 
The  building  itself  is  fire-proof;  but  in 
case  the  stock  should  catch  fire,  automatic 
sprinklers  are  placed  throughout  the 
building  served  by  a  tank  on  the  roof 
holding  1 2,000  gallons,  while  stand- 
pipes  are  also  provided  to  which  four 
fire-engines  can  attach  their  hose. 

Street  &  Smith  owe  their  success  al- 
most entirely  to  their  attitude  toward  the 


newsdealer,  and  what  this  attitude  is  no 
one  better  appreciates  than  himself. 

A  half-century's  study  of  the  public 
taste  has  enabled  them  to  accurately 
gauge  what  the  public  wants.  Sound 
business  management  has  enabled  them 
to  build  their  enormous  plant.  Every 
newsdealer  has  an  interest  in  the  superior 
equipment  of  the  Street  &  Smith  estab- 
lishment because  it  makes  it  possible  to 
reduce  the  cost  of  manufacture  to  a 
minimum,  and  consequently  lower  the 
price  to  the  dealer  so  that  he  can  make 
a  greater  profit  from  the  Street  &  Smith 
publications  than  from  those  of  any  other 
house.  During  more  than  fifty  years 
Street  &  Smith  have  stood  by  the  news- 
dealer, and  the  great  Street  &  Smith 
building  is  a  monument  to  the  fact  that 
the  newsdealer  has  stood  by  them. 


FRANK    PRESBREY  CO 
NEW  YORK 


|AV£t;Y  tr 

law*:; 


